Corrosion inhibiting container for metal articles



4, 1959 J. J. Am 2,898,026

CORROSION INHIBITING CONTAINER FOR METAL ARTICLES Filed Feb. 1, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l Aug. 4, 1959 J. J. AID 2,898,026

CORROSION INHIBITING CONTAINER FOR METAL ARTICLES Filed Feb. 1, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I50 I10 I52 134 I36 5 I u u m I20 FIE. 5 I

l I 9 l5; 9 /6 ill I]? {/7 1 I38 {40 H 2 H 4 United States Patent CORROSION INHIBITING CONTAINER FOR METAL ARTICLES Joseph J. Aid, Quaker Hill, Conn., assignor to Continental Can Company, Inc., a corporation of New York Application February 1, 1954, Serial No. 407,269

4 Claims. (Cl. 229-14) The present invention relates to containers such as boxes or bags made of paperboard or paper for packaging metal articles and protecting the same against rust and corrosion. The invention provides containers having associated with the inner surfaces thereof a useful amount of corrosion inhibiting substance so related with the paperboard or paper from which the container is made as to prevent chemical reaction harmful to the inhibitor from occurring between the inhibitor and the paper or paperboard forming the container. In a simple example of the present invention, a sheet of neutral paper coated or impregnated with a vapor-phase inhibitor is laminated to an inner surface of a'container by the use of an adhesive which is itself not harmful to the inhibitor and which will serve as a barrier between the inhibitor and the paper or paperboard from which the container is formed.

More specifically, the adhesive may comprise a nonpolar wax or waxlike substance such as an amorphous petroleum wax, sometimes referred to as microcrystalline wax, with or without additives frequently used to enhance moisture-proofness or other characteristics desired in such waxes.

The use of wrappers comprising carefully selected neutral paper impregnated or coated with vapor-phase inhibitors is known. Metal articles, particularly ferrous or aluminum articles requiring protection against rust and corrosion are encased in such wrappers and thereafter, in "many instances, are placed in a protective outer container which may comprise a paper bag or paperboard box constructed of materials appropriate for the size and weight of the contents and the type of handling and shipping to which the finished package may be subjected. Thus, a

part machined from steel may be encased in such a wrapper and placed in a heavy box made from paperboard especially treated to resist shock or abrasion or to retain strength while wet or even to have good printability with certain inks. The part thus enclosed will be adequate- 1y protected but in the event the wrapper is omitted by inadvertence the part will be unprotected insofar as corrosion or rusting is concerned and may arrive at its destination in useless condition. The added expense of applying the wrapper, of inspecting and establishing con- 'trols to insure proper wrapping on each object may be avoided by the use of the present invention wherein the -outer or final container is provided by the manufacturer thereof with an appropriate amount of vapor-phase in- 2,898,026 1C Patented Aug. 4, 195 9 Fig. 1 is a plan view of the inside surface of a blank for a container embodying the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a container in flat folded form made from the blank of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the container of Fig. 2 in erected position;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view on the line 44 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a section along the line 5-5 of Fig. 2; and

Figs. 6 through 10 are views respectively similar to Figs. 1 through 5, Figure 9 being a section taken along the line 99 of Figure 6 and Figure 10 being a section taken along the line 1010 of Figure 7; but showing a modified form of the invention.

Containers such as boxes or bags may be made from paperboard or paper which in turn may comprise virgin stock or secondary stock or a mixture thereof. Boxes may be made from a single thickness of paper or board .or may be made up of a plurality of laminated plies thereof or may be made from corrugated container board. It is most unlikely that the paperboard or paper commercially used in the production of boxes and bags will be chemically inert. They may be somewhat acid or alkaline and may contain varying quantities of residual chemicals used in pulping,-de-inking, bleaching, or other manufacturing processes. They may be impregnated with special materials for imparting specific characteristics. ;They may be sized or treated to develop wet strength, for example. So-called neutral papers, on the other hand, are manufactured under carefully controlled conditions in which the pulp is thoroughly washed and may be especially processed to contain substantially nothing but the 'cellulose from the raw material used as a fiber source. Obviously, such neutral papers are expensive to manufacture and cannot ordinarily exhibit strength, printability and other characteristics commonly required for paper- 'board boxes or paper bags.

In the following specification paperboard is generally use to define those materials from which all types of boxes from folding boxes to shipping containers may be 'made and paper includes any paperlike material from which bags or similar containers may be made. Neutral paper is used to define chemically inert paper suitable for receiving a coating of or impregnation with any of the commercially available vapor-phase corrosion inhibiting materials.

' Vapor-phase inhibitors referred to herein are those materials which have been found to be effective to prevent or sharply reduce rust or corrosion of metal articles 'while the latter are exposed to air containing a sufficient concentration of the inhibitor in vapor phase.

A particularly effective group of such materials is disclosed in US. Patent No. 2,629,649 granted February 24, 1953, to Wachter et al. The materials in this group are referred to in that patent and in the art as cyclohexylammonium compounds. These compounds are very sensitive to chemicals frequently found in paper and pa- :perboard and do not retain their effectiveness for inhibition of corrosion for any substantial period of time when brought into contact with many types of paper or paperboard. Accordingly, it has been the practice to .provide a neutral paper especially manufactured for the .purpose and to impregnate or coat such a paper with 'these compounds for use as a protective wrapper as described above. While different compounds useful as vapor-phase inhibitors may react differently to the chemicals ordinarily in paper and any of them may react differently to different chemicals which might be found in .a particular paper, it is generally true that substantially any commercial grade of paper or paperboard commonly used for the manufacture of containers will cause marked deterioration in the inhibiting qualities of substantially any of the inhibitors now commonly in use. Accordingly, in the description of the present invention, the term vapor-phase inhibitor is intended to include any material havingthe desired inhibiting characteristicsand which is adversely affected to at least some extent by the chemicals commonly found in commercial grades of paper and paperboard.

1 According to the present invention, a neutral paper is coated or impregnated with a vapor-phase inhibitor and the coated and impregnated product is adhered to a surface of paper of paperboard which is destined to become the inner surface of a container by the use of a non-polar adhesive. A suitable non-polar adhesive is disclosed in US. Patent No. 2,031,036 granted February 18, 1936, to Dreymann. Other adhesives which comprise microcrystalline waxes such as amorphous petroleum wax or mixtures or blends thereof with paraffin andwith or without colloidal or other additives which are themselves neither acidic nor basic are suitable for use in the present invention. All such materials will be re ferred to herein as non-polar Waxlike adhesives.

When an impregnated form of vapor-phase-inhibitortreated neutral paper is used either surface thereof may be exposed to the interior of the container. When a coated form is used, the coated surface must be exposed to the interior of the container. Preferably in either event the treated paper is so positioned on the container walls that the exposed surfaces thereof will not come in contact with uncovered surfaces of the paper or paperboard from which the container is made.- Whilethis is no problem with so-called set-up boxes, it will be understood that a very large percentage of boxes .andall paper bags are folded flat for shipment to the user. Thus, if a single patch of treated paper were tobe adhered to the inner surface of only one wall of a folding box, the active surface thereof would come in contact with an .opposed uncovered surface of the box when the same is folded flat. Similarly, such a patch of treated paper on .oneinterior surface of a wall of a paper bag would come in contact with an opposed uncovered surface of the .paper in another Wall of the bag when folded fiat. Thus, in accordance with this invention it is preferred to apply the treated paper to the interior surface of a container in such a manner that when the container is folded flat, the treated surface will be brought into face-to-face contact with another area to which similarly treated paper has been applied. If relatively small patches are applied, they should be spotted in such positions as to fall into registry with one another when the container is folded flat. Alternatively, the entire inner surfaces of containers such as boxes or bags may be covered with the treated paper. In the case of folding boxes, the entire inner surface of certain walls may be covered with treated paper so that at least a major portion of the surfaces will meet. Certain illustrative examples will be described in detail hereinbelow.

In Fig. 1 there is illustrated a box blank having major Walls comprising a front wall 12, a rear wall 14 and end Walls 16 and 18. A glue tab 20 is hinged along a score line 22 to the rear panel 14; The panels 12, 14, 16 and 18 are hinged to one another by appropriately positioned score lines 24, 26 and 28. Closure flaps of any desired form may be supplied. As shown in the drawings, top closure flaps 30, 32, 34 and 36 are hinged along score lines at the upper edges of the panels 16, 12", 1'8 and 14, respectively, and bottom closure flaps 38,

'40, 42 and44 are similarly hinged to the bottom edges jto tab 20 and the end Wall panel 16 is pressed into con tact with the glue tab 20. After the adhesive has set the container is in the form shown in Fig. 2 and is ready .for shipment to the user.- The container just described 4 is merely typical of a vast variety of containers known generally as folding boxes.

In accordance with the present invention, a patch 46 of suitable, preferably neutral, paper impregnated or coated with a vapor-phase inhibitor, is secured to the surface of the wall panel 12 destined to become the interior surface of the completed container. The position of the patch 46 on the panel 12 is a matter of choice, perhaps dictated by the particular nature of the article to be packaged, and the area thereof is a similar matter of choice as will be discussed herebelow. However, once the position of the patch 46 has been determined, it is preferred to apply a patch 48 of similarly treated or coated material on the panel 14 in such position that when the container is folded to bring it to the position shown in Fig. 2, the patches 46 and 48 will be brought into face to face contact so that the active surfaces thereof will be prevented from coming in contact with uncovered areas of the paperboard from'which the blank 10 is made. A suitable disposition of the patches 46 and 48 relative to each other is illustrated in Fig. 2.

When the container as shown in Fig. 2 reaches the user, it will be erected into the position shown in Fig. 3 for the reception of contents. The bottom flaps 38, 40,

42 and 44 may be closed and secured in any desired fashion. After the contents have been inserted, thetop flaps 30, 32, 34 and 36 may similarly be secured and the packaged contents will then be exposed to the corrosion and rust inhibiting effect of the particular vapor-phase inhibitor with which the patches 46 and 48 may be treated. a

In Fig. 4 the patch 48 is shown as comprising a base SO-made of paper which is neutral, i.e., a paper having such characteristics as to be free from any deleterious effect upon the particular vapor-phase inhibitor with which it is to be impregnated or coated. The paper base 50 is shown-as provided with a coating 52 consisting of a suitable vapor-phase inhibitor which may or may not be mixed or blended with starch or other suitable adhesive to cause it to adhere to the paper base 50. Also,

the paper base 50"may be impregnated rather than coated or it may be both impregnated and coated with the vaporphase inhibitor.

The active surface or coating 52 is exposed to the interior of the container and the patch is secured tothe wall 14 by a layer of adhesive 54 which is a non-polar adhesive as defined hereinabove. For ex- .ample, the adhesive 54 may comprise an amorphous petroleum wax or microcrystalline wax. The layer 54 of non-polar adhesive is preferably continuous in order to serve as a complete barrier between the surface of the any substances from the container wall'tothe patch. The

patches48 and-46 may be'identical as illustrated herein or one of them may comprise untreated neutral paper serving merely to protect the other when the container is folded fiat asshown in Figs. 2 and 5. The non-polar adhesive may be applied-by well known spot pasting equipment and the patches 46 and 48 may be applied to the adhesive covered areas by equipment such as that used for spotting windows in box or envelope blanks.

In Fig. 6, there is shown a blank having main walls 112, 114,116 and 118 and closure flaps 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142 and 144 and having a glue tab 120,

'all of which may be respectively similar to the parts described in connection with Fig. l. The blank 110 has secured on the surface thereof destined to become the interior of the completed container, a lining 156 which, as shown, covers completely or substantially completely,

the main wall panels 12, 14, 16 and 18. The lining 156 is made up of a base sheet 150 of neutra paper impregnated or coated with vapor phase inhibitor 152. The lining 156 is secured to the paperboard from which the blank 110 is made by a preferably continuous layer of non-polar adhesive 154, as shown in Fig. 9.

When the blank 110 is formed into a folded box, adhesive is placed upon the glue tab 120 and is brought in contact with the edge portion of the end wall panel 116. If so desired, the lining 156 may be cut out in the zone of the end wall 116 which comes in contact with the glue tab 120.

Alternatively, a container like that shown in Figs. 6 through 9 may be formed from paperboard to which the vapor-phase-inhibitor coated or impregnated paper base has been laminated by the use of a non-polar adhesive prior to the formation of the blank 110. In such event, the completed container would differ from that shown in Figs. 6 through 10 only in that the lining 156 would extend throughout the areas of the closure flaps as well as the major walls. While certain of the areas of the closure flaps would thus become ineffective when the closures are secured, the cost of the wasted vapor-phaseinhibitor might be offset by savings in cost in manufacture of the blanks since there will be no need for accurate spotting such as is required with the additional lining 156 shown in Figs. 6 through 10 or the separate patches shown in Figs. 1 through 5.

The advantages in the use of the present invention are quite apparent since metal parts may be positioned within any of the containers herein described with the assurance that they will be protected from rust or corrosion to the full extent of the life of the treated paper used in the patches or linings herein disclosed. In the form of the invention wherein patches are used, it will be apparent that the size of the patches will be chosen on the basis of the particular metal part to be packaged, the particular vapor-inhibitor used and the quantity thereof in a given area of the paper base, and the length of time that it is expected the metal part will require protection. Where economy is not a great factor or where protection is desired for a maximum period of time, the partial or complete linings discussed in connection with Figs. 6 through 10 may be preferable.

For purposes of illustration the invention has been described in connection with a simple form of container. It will be recognized that the principles thereof may be adapted to elaborate forms of boxes or to paper bags Without departing from the scope of the invention disclosed herein.

I claim:

1. A container for packaging metal articles and pro tecting the same from rust and corrosion comprising at least one wall, the inner surface at least of said wall being composed of paper, a sheet of neutral paper having a vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor associated therewith, and a layer of non-polar wax-like adhesive disposed between inner surface portions of at least one wall of said container and said sheet of neutral paper to secure the latter to said container wall and to substantially prevent chemical reaction between said vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor and any substance incorporated in said container wall.

2. A container for packaging metal articles and protecting the same from rust and corrosion comprising at least one wall, a liner for said container made of neutral paper having a vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor associated therewith, and a layer of non-polar wax-like adhesive disposed between the inner surface of the wall of said container and said liner to secure the latter to said container wall and to substantially prevent chemical reaction between said vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor and any substance incorporated in said container wall.

3. A container for packaging metal articles and protecting the same from rust and corrosion comprising a folding box made of paperboard and having a plurality of walls and closure flaps, a liner for said container made of neutral paper having a vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor associated therewith, said liner being in the form of a. strip extending substantially the full inner circumference of said walls, and a layer of non-polar wax-like adhesive disposed between said walls and said liner to secure the latter to said walls and to substantially prevent chemical reaction between said vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor and any substance incorporated in said walls.

4. A container for packaging metal articles and protecting the same from rust and corrosion comprising a folding box having a plurality of walls made of paperboard, a sheet of neutral paper secured to the inner surface of one of said walls, a sheet of neutral paper secured to the inner surface of another of said walls, a vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor associated with at least one of said sheets of neutral paper, a layer of non-polar wax-like adhesive disposed between said sheets of neutral paper and the walls of said container to substantially prevent chemical reaction between said vapor-phase corrosion inhibitor and any substance incorporated in said container walls, and said sheets of neutral paper being so positioned upon said walls respectively that substantial areas of said neutral paper sheets will lie in face-to-face contact with each other when said box is folded flat.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 325,729 Buckingham Sept. 8, 1885 2,170,654 Dalton Aug. 22, 1939 2,534,201 Hutter Dec. 12, 1950 2,577,219 Wachter et al. Dec. 4, 1951 

1. A CONTAINER FOR PACKING METAL ARTICLES AND PROTECTING THE SAME FROM RUST AND CORROSION COMPRISING AT LEAST ONE WALL, THE INNER SURFACE AT LEAST OF SAID WALL BEING COMPOSED OF PAPER, A SHEET OF NEUTRAL PAPER HAVING A VAPOR-PHASE CORROSION INHIBITOR ASSOCIATED THEREWITH, AND A LAYER OF NON-POLAR WAX-LIKE ADHESIVE DISPOSED BETWEEN INNER SURFACE PORTIONS OF AT LEAST ONE WALL OF SAID CONTAINER AND SAID SHEET OF NEUTRAL PAPER TO SECURE THE LATTER TO SAID CONTAINER WALL AND TO SUBSTANTIALLY PREVENT CHEMICAL REACTION BETWEEN SAID VAPOR-PHASE CORROSION INHIBITOR AND ANY SUBSTANCE INCORPORATED IN SAID CONTAINER WALL. 